The Warp is perfectly safe, its creators claimed.

The single greatest advance in computer technology since the invention of the microchip, the Warp is a virtual reality gaming system so advanced that players aren’t just in the game, they are the game. And inside the Warp lies the most cunning of all games, the de facto king of online gaming. It is the one game said to be unbeatable: Crisis.

The Warp was flawless, and the game was perfect. Until something went terribly wrong, trapping Tori Adams and her friends inside it, unable to log off and free their minds from the uploaded virus in their brains. With no other options available and time running out, they must do the one thing that has never been done before—what experts say can’t be done—they must beat Crisis in order to save their lives.

Armed only with their computer skills and whatever the out-of-control game grants them, the group must battle impossible odds and confront their own demons if they want to survive. With an unseen enemy hot on their trail and tensions running high, they must learn to trust each other more than they had ever thought possible.

Especially since one of them is a traitor.

A relentless alien pursues a beleaguered squad of soldiers through time and reality, while the Elderwatch monitors their fates, unraveling the intertwining stories of survival and annihilation.

When does the hunter become the hunted? How does a single image change the story to something . . . else?

In Dancing with Destruction, we get to find out. Nine stories from some of the top authors in military science fiction will tell the tale of the poor, hapless soldiers and an apex predator in hot pursuit.

Featuring stories from David Weber & Marisa Wolf, Nick Cole & Jason Anspach, Kacey Ezell, Jacob Holo & Edie Skye, Rick Partlow, Joelle Presby, Blaine Pardoe, Nick Steverson & Melissa Olthoff, and Jason Cordova.

In the end, it’s not about who is the hunted or the hunter, but who is willing to dance . . .

The Warp is perfectly safe, its creators claimed.

After the events which took place one year before, the last thing Tori Adams wanted was to go back into The Warp. She enjoyed college and the challenges it brought. She had no desire to set foot into the virtual reality realm ever again. Life moved on, and The Warp changed for the better as improvements were made.

The Nexus was a new login realm that allowed for gamers to avoid being stuck in-game for too long. The alpha testing had gone fine, but when the open beta testing began for the Nexus, it turned on—and stayed on. Nobody could explain it, and WarpSoft did everything in their power to shut it down. Unable to investigate from without, they asked Tori to go back in to find out what was keeping the Nexus online. She’s convinced it’s nothing more than a computer glitch. WarpSoft agreed with her, but...

What if something—or someone—far more dangerous was behind it?

There was only one way to find out.

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were Space Hero by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and Tanya, Princess of Elves, by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2024.

As is usual with such copyrighted material from Baen, the contents may be copied and shared but NOT sold. All commercial rights are reserved to Baen Books.

NEW ENTRY IN THE MONSTER HUNTER MEMOIRS SERIES:
Chloe Mendoza and her team from Monster Hunter International must seek out and destroy an ancient evil threatening Los Angeles at the height of Disco Fever.

Los Angeles: the 1970s.

Disco is king and the nightclubs are full of young, beautiful people with Saturday night fever. From the Sunset Strip to Hollywood Boulevard, a new era is dawning. But below the glitz and glamour, a darkness lurks.

Chloe Mendoza knows darkness. She is a nagualii, a half-demon created by the gods of Central and South America, a daughter of the Court of Feathers, a group of demigods who ruled Mesoamerica before the Spanish arrived.

Now, she is a member of Monster Hunter International’s latest team, based in the L.A. Basin. Business is good in the City of Angels, but soon Chloe gets a message from the Court of Feathers, warning her of a Dark Master who is building up its power in the region. Whatever it is, it brings death and carnage with it.

Time to boogie.

The Monster Hunter Memoirs:

Monster Hunter Memoirs: Grunge
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Sinners
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Saints
Monster Hunter Memoirs: Fever

The Monster Hunter series:

Monster Hunter International
Monster Hunter Vendetta
Monster Hunter Alpha
Monster Hunter Legion
Monster Hunter Nemesis
Monster Hunter Siege
Monster Hunter Guardian
Monster Hunter Bloodlines

New Entry in the Best-Selling Black Tide Rising Series

FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN

When the lights went out, humanity died. But from darkness came hope.

The surviving students at St. Dominic’s Preparatory School for Girls have had it rough since the H7D3 virus virtually wiped out human civilization. Between rampaging hordes of zombies and wannabe tinpot dictators, the only thing holding them together is the iron will of the school’s lone surviving nun, Sister Ann. They know how to survive, but rebuilding isn’t only about surviving—it’s about rising up.

As more survivors start to seek asylum at the isolated school, it becomes readily apparent that the school can be the anvil from which humanity is reforged. To achieve this, though, the survivors must rely on one another to rebuild. The flames of life will be fanned, and the sparks from every strike of the hammer will provide light in the darkness.

But it will not be easy.

From atop the mountain of fire, this beacon of hope must spread—or humanity will die quietly in the long, final night.

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).